Debussy’s whimsical "The Golliwog Cake Walk" from his Children’s Suite opened the evening, a tribute to a former assistant concertmaster, Abe Meskin who died recently. A more complex Debussy followed, "Jeux" (Games, i.e., tennis, composed for a ballet). This was Debussy’s last completed orchestral score, perhaps its technical intricacies of greater interest to performers than listeners.

Poulenc’s "Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra and Timpani in G minor" with Ezequiel Menendez at the organ thrilled the audience: the applause did not stop until the soloist returned to the organ. For an encore he chose the Toccata (Allegro) movement from Charles-Marie Widor’s Organ Symphony No. 5, a piece that transmutes piano technique to the organ.

The evening concluded with Richard Strauss’ "Also sprach Zarathustra," perhaps best known as the stirring music which opens Stanley Kubrick’s film, "2001, A Space Odyssey." In Strauss’ program note (1896), he stated: "...I wished to convey by means of music an idea of the development of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of its development, religious and scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the superman. The whole symphonic poem is intended as a homage to Nietzsche’s genius, which found its greatest expression in his book, ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra.’" Throughout, the score highlights the juxtaposition between nature and humanity, indeed the struggle to prevail. In his HSO informative and entertaining program notes, Dr. Richard E. Rodda writes: "The truth of the matter seems to be that Strauss’ music and Nietzsche’s poem actually share little more than a title and a few pretentious ideas. Virtually every attempt to equate a section of the tone poem with a specific passage from the poem has been unconvincing."

Next in Masterworks Series: February 14, All Tchaikovsky program